Transcript

TIME

SPEAKER

00:00:05

Shaireen Selamat

Hi. My names is Shaireen Selamat. I am a doctoral student, taking my first year in a PhD in Education at the Warwick University.

00:00:18

Shaireen Selamat

I’ve been a teacher for the last 15 years, so it was a natural progression for me to see how I could give back to the community, and I felt research provided a platform for that, and so I decided to embark on my PhD as a result.

00:00:39

Shaireen Selamat

On weekdays, I have now started to discipline myself to come to campus and be at the library in the morning. So I try to do my greatest amount of work between the hours of 7:30am-12:00pm, after which I’ll go back and I’ll do whatever else I need, and then I’ll probably continue for a little bit in the evening, after I’ve done my chores for the day.

00:01:07

Shaireen Selamat

So far, having listened to quite a number of PhD stories, I think the most important thing about a PhD is everybody’s journey is different. It’s hard to compare, but by sharing each other’s stories, you are able to learn a little bit more, just to make that journey a little bit more enjoyable.

00:01:28

Shaireen Selamat

Well, I come from Singapore, and the research community is quite different, so having been immersed in Warwick at the present moment, it’s a very open, very collaborative approach, which I feel it’s a great approach to have, and I’d like to bring it back to Singapore when I return.

00:01:51

Shaireen Selamat

I think when you embark on a PhD, you really don’t know what it is all about, but I realise it really isn’t about locking yourself in the library, but it is about getting out there, networking with people, and today, getting online as well, to widen your field of acquaintances and seek out potential areas for research.

00:02:19

Shaireen Selamat

The question I should have told myself or the statement I should have told myself would be – ‘Why didn’t I do it sooner?’

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